Ishopanishad: ~ “They are steeped in ignorance and sunk into the greatest depth of misery who worships the matter, instead of the All-Pervading God and those who worship things born of matter like trees, animals, man, etc. are sunk deeper in misery."
It is necessary for the seeker to do his homework, and verify the validity of all the claims, rather than blindly believe, what others expound as knowledge, till; the un-contradicted truth is obtained.
The seeker must have the courage of Bhagavan Buddha to accept the truth and reject the untruth. Since Bhagavan Buddha rejected religion, the idea of God and scriptures, therefore, it is evident that he has gone through every aspect and verified and found them to be inadequate and useless for the pursuit of truth.
The essence of Mundaka Upanishad is:~ Do not be satisfied with rituals, yoga, etc. which are good in their own way but inquire. Into what? Brahman and Atman are things you can never see. So do not inquire into them. Inquire into the world around you, which you can see. Science tells you it is passing away every second. Everything is dying repeatedly. Where is it going? Thus, you follow up your inquiry into what you can lay hands on. How can you inquire into Atma which you cannot see? So first we deal with the known and seen, this inquiry leads up to the unknown in the end.
Sage Sankara says it is the ignorance of the ‘Self’ hidden by the Maya that causes suffering and pain. The desire for happiness is essentially a longing to awaken to the Self’, which is hidden by the Maya (universe).
Belief in Orthodoxy, belief in personal God, Karma theory, rebirth, heaven, hell, and sin are the greatest obstacle in the pursuit of truth because they are based on the false Self-(you) within the false experience (waking).
Katha Upanishad (1.2.5) says: ~ "Caught in the grip of ignorance, self-proclaimed experts consider themselves learned authorities. They wander about this world befooled, like the blind leading the blind."
Sage Sankara says: ~ “The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.
Sage Sankara:~ (11) As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, the person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view himself in terms of the caste into which he is born, his age, the stage of his life, his standing in society, etc. In addition, he is required to perform rituals all through his life. However, the 'Self' has none of those attributes or tags. Hence, the person who superimposes all those attributes on the changeless, eternal Self and identifies Self with the body is confusing one for the other; and is, therefore, an ignorant person. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.
Sage Sankara:~ (11.1) This ignorance (mistaking the body for Self) brings in its wake a desire for the well-being of the body, aversion for its disease or discomfort, fear of its destruction, and thus a host of miseries(anartha).This anartha is caused by projecting karthvya(“doer” sense) and bhokthavya (object) on the Atman. Sage Sankara calls this adhyasa. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are, therefore, he says, addressed to an ignorant person.
Sage Sankara:~ (11.2) In short, person who engages in rituals with the notion “I am an agent, doer, thinker”, according to Sage Sankara, is ignorant, as his behavior implies a distinct, separate doer/agent/knower ; and an object that is to be done/achieved/known. That duality is Avidya, an error that can be removed by Vidya.
Sage Sankara: ~ (12) Sage Sankara affirming his belief in one eternal unchanging reality (Brahman) and the illusion of plurality, drives home the point that Upanishads deal not with rituals but with the knowledge of the Absolute (Brahma Vidya) and the Upanishads give us an insight into the essential nature of the Self which is identical with the Absolute, the Brahman.
Sage Sankara: ~ Atman, the innermost Self is verily Brahman (God), being equanimous, quiescent, and by nature absolute Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss. Atman is not the body which is non-existence itself. This is called true Knowledge by the wise.
The serious seekers of truth have to take the path of reason and discrimination. By becoming aware of the non-dual (attributeless) consciousness leads one to direct realization of the truth, which is beyond the form, time and space.
The conviction about the Soul, the 'Self' becomes firmer as one becomes aware of the existence of the formless witness of the three states.
As the seeker's understanding matures subconsciously he realizes the Advaitic truth. The realization of the Advaitic truth leads to Self-awareness. Self-awareness brings unity in diversity in the midst of diversity (waking).
In Self-awareness, there is no separation between the body, ego, and experience of the world, because there is no division in consciousness. In Self-awareness, everything is consciousness the diversity within consciousness is merely an illusion created out of consciousness.
The discrimination between the dual (waking or dream) and nondual (deep sleep) experiences, leads to Self-awareness. In Self-awareness, the illusory duality never remains as a reality.
Advaitic wisdom is the perfect realization of ultimate truth or Brahman as immutable, association -less, eternal, Self-luminous, without a second and infinite.
Remember:~
Search for truth is searching to know God in truth. If you search for the ‘Self’ then you will find only the Soul. If you search for truth then you will find only the Soul. If you search for the God then you will find only the Soul
.
Thus, the Soul is the Goal. The Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God.
Thus, the Soul is the Goal. The Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God.
God is not He or She God is the Spirit. Do not physicalize God's worship. Such worships of non-Vedic Gods are barred by Vedas. All God with forms and attributes are not God in truth.
Lord Krishna says Ch ~V: ~ “Those who know the 'Self' in truth.". The last two words (tattvataha) are usually ignored by pundits, but they make all the difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God.
The dualistic worship of "God” is only for the ignorant populace. The God in truth is only Atman, the innermost Self. In reality, there is no duality, no differentiation. Only Atman exists.
Bhagavad Gita: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God) is considered the all-pervading consciousness, which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (14.27).
When Bhagavad Gita says, God is considered the all-pervading consciousness which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material then nothing has to be accepted as God other than consciousness.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter: ~ “All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many God s. (7- Verse -20)
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says:~ "He who worships the deities as entities entirely separate from him does not know the truth. For the Gods, he is like a pasu (beast)". (1. 4. 10)
Remember:~
Max Müller says: ~ “The religion of the Veda knows no idols; the worship of idols in India is a secondary formation, a degradation of the more primitive worship of ideal Gods."
Hindus are idol worshipers of the large numbers of Gods and Goddesses whereas Vedas declares God is ‘ONE’ and that God is Atman.
Yajurveda – chapter- 32:~ God is Supreme Spirit has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material shape. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions. Thus, Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.
Rig Veda: ~ The Atman is the cause; Atman is the support of all that exists in this universe. May ye never turn away from the Atman the innermost ‘‘Self’’. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?" (10:48, 5)
Rig-Veda 1-164-46 and Y.V 32-1 clearly mention that God is “One”.
Rig Veda declares God is ‘ONE’ and that God is Atman, then why to believe and worship anything else in place of real God.
Thus, Atman the innermost ‘‘Self’’, is God. Thus, ‘‘Self’’-realization is real worship. ‘‘Self’’-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is necessary to get realization.
Hindus are idol worshipers of the large numbers of Gods and Goddesses whereas Vedas declares God is ‘ONE’ and that God is Atman.
Chandogya Upanishad: ~ ekam evadvitiyam ~ God is only one without a second. (6- Section- 2- Verse- 1)
According to Vedas the Atman the Self’ is God.
Shiva is not Vedic God. All the God s and Goddesses with form, name, and attributes belong to Hinduism, not of the Vedic religion or Santana dharma
God and Goddesses are religious concepts. Whatever seen, known, believed and experienced as a person within the dualistic illusion (world) is a falsehood.
Thus, it refers to formless and attributeless God, which is the Atman (Soul), the Self within the false experience. Thus, it indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imagination based on the false ‘‘Self’’. Thus, Atman or the Soul, the Self is God in truth.
The Vedas do not talk about idol worship. In fact, till about 2000 years ago followers of Vedism never worshiped idols. Idol worship was started by the followers of Buddhism and Jains. There is logic to idol worship. Vedas speak of one God that is the supreme ‘‘Self’’ in i.e. Atman or Soul but Hinduism indulges in worshiping 60 million Gods.
It indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imagination based on the false self.
The Vedas as a body of scripture contains many contradictions and they are fragmentary in nature. For Hindus, scriptures like the Bhagavad-Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas are more attractive and appealing than the Vedas. And also the Gods and Goddesses they worship differ considerably from the Vedic ones. The collection of hymns called Vedas is written in praise of certain deities by poets over several centuries does not seem to have much significance for the Hindus.
Yajur Veda says: ~
Translation 1
They enter darkness, those who worship natural things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire, stone, etc).
They sink deeper into darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc.) (Yajurveda 40:9)
Translation 2
Deep into the shade of blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshippers. They sink to darkness deeper yet who on sambhuti are intent." (Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph T. H. Griffith pg 538)
Translation 3
"They are enveloped in darkness, in other words, are steeped in ignorance and sunk in the greatest depths of misery who worship the uncreated, eternal prakrti -- the material cause of the world -- in place of the All-pervading God , But those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time." (Yajurveda 40:9.)
So, Yajur Veda indicates that: ~
They sink deeper into darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc. (Yajurveda 40:9)
Those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time." (Yajurveda 40:9.)
To acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, the seeker has to realize his inherited religion is adulterated in the past and it becomes a great obstacle is realizing the ultimate truth or Brahman.
The seeker's aim is the search for the Ultimate Truth or Brahman. The search to find the non-dualistic or Advaitic truth that in actuality never was lost, only hidden.
Upanishad aspiration is best expressed in the following sutra: ~
OM Asato ma sad gaMaya, tamaso ma jyotir gaMaya, mrityor ma aamritaam gaMaya. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti
OM Lead me from ignorance to truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. Peace, Peace, Peace." (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (1/3/28)).
Religion was coherent because they had a transcendent individualized God as a central doctrine, whereas in the realm of truth individualized God cannot be considered as the center because the Soul and the Self’ is the center of all that exists.
First, one should not hold a God as the center of existence without verification. Both the theist and atheist are theories, with nothing to do with ultimate truth or Brahman. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
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